[6.0 - 6.4 Spoilers] An interesting video detailing Venat's polarizing reception

[Eisi]

Sorry, not only is 'nearly two hours' far too much time to ask for me to devote to a timestamp-less video with a clickbait-y, factually tenuous title that tells me nothing of its contents, Lyth managing to dig up at least one of the people who takes credit for the account shows me that this isn't a video made by people speaking in good faith. I'm not inclined to give that much time and attention to someone who applauded an 'improved rewrite' of the story of Endwalker that turned Venat into a serial killer and tried to create a 'good Empire' by putting their self-insert in charge of the Empire, and whose response to people arguing about that was 'diddums'. This is not someone who I can ever have confidence is making arguments in good faith, and won't give them that sort of attention.

Tehmon is right: there's absolutely nothing 'polarizing' about Venat, any more than any other character, except in this one small subset of the community that echo-chambers themselves. The only places that I've ever seen talk about Venat as 'polarizing' and not 'universally beloved as a complex and tragic character' was exactly the group of official forums posters in the group of pretty clear friends that the poster Lyth found rolled in, and a small cluster of Twitter posters that I suspect might've just been one person with a half-dozen sockpuppets. Everywhere else? Hugely popular character, right up with the more conventional fan-favorites in character polls, popular subject for cosplay (for whatever that means to you, but it's hardly a negative), really any measurement of character fondness and popularity I can think of she's up there next to Emet-Selch. I see more genuine controversy about G'raha Tia than Venat.

Damn, this is pretty tragic if you ask me! I have listened to about 18 minutes of the video and it's very chill, the speaker has the exact cadence and intonation of cuck philosophy - very easy on the ears - and they bring up great points that have always bothered me about the Endwalker storyline in a succinct way without hyperbolizing or going for cheap outrage. You have dealt with people being emotional on this board which I understand is off-putting when you see this coming from the same people who have left such a negative impression on you, but it would be depriving yourself of a treat imo! There's clearly a lot of heart and love put into that video. It comes from a place of loving this game, not nihilistic rage or smug contrarianism.

Also it's criticizing the writing more than anything. I don't see the hatred for Venat, they rather attempt to contextualize problems with her character as born of a feeling of whiplash experienced as a result of a clash of the narrative framing of her position and the player's potential own ethical framework or something like that. I think it's appropriate to meet people who did not like the 6.0 story (like me for example, I think it sucked hard) from a point of understanding. It also doesn't matter whether something is almost universally beloved - your own feelings are still valid and it's still worth critically examining the medium.

However I agree with you that the Aveyond rewrite sucked in terms of Venat and some other stuff. I would have done things entirely differently and actually wrote Venat as a tragic character. I still loved parts of it and I appreciate when fans put so much heart into their fanfiction.